AUTHOR'S NOTES: Background on me. This is the first Fic I
ever wrote. And I had my 15 year old, that writes Digimon
fics, to help me with it. So please bear with me I'm learning.

Chap 2--Meeting of the minds!!!!

Ranalla sighed as she waited for someone to open the heavy metal door.
ĎIím in the wrong place. What newspaper is run out of a place like this?í,
she thought as she bit on her pink lip while she tapped her foot
impatiently.

Meanwhile the Lone Gunmen where watching the woman on there.

Frohike smiled and said, "Hello Pretty Lady! Byers you get someone to
help around her. Heck I would just pay her to stand and breathe!"

Byers coughed and refused to say anything about his comment; he prided
his self as to much a gentleman to say something as crude as that. But his
thoughts seem to be going that way no matter how much he wished they
did not. Langly looked at the TV not saying anything, just started at the
woman who was biting her lip. It was as if he never seen a woman before.

Quickly he opened the door, turning the many locks. Seeing her
face-to-face was too much for him. He could not for the life of him thing of
something to say, as he just stood there with his mouth hanging open.

"Ahhh, Ahhhh, Ahhhh?" He said looking at her.

"Is this the offices of the Lone Gunmen?" Ranalla asked him softly
looking him in the eyes.

Again only, "Ahhhh, ahhhhh, ahhhh!" Came from Langlyís mouth.

The other two Gunmen looked around their blond partner at the sound of
her soft voice.

Byers comes to the womanís rescue and his friends by saying, "Yes Miss,
it is. That is this is the office of the Lone Gunmen. Can we help you?",
he looked at her with a plead in his blue eyes.

Ranalla looks away from the drooling blond only to find her self
looking into Byersí piercing eyes. She blushed as it was her turn to stammer
out her name, "Ranalla. My name is Ranalla Parker..."

Frohike stops undressing her with his eyes and he snaps his fingers,
"The same Parker as..."

Langly seem to come out of the trace he was in as he walked away from
them and started typing on the keyboard. Bring up an email message and
reading it quickly he asked, "Your old man Parkerís granddaughter?", much to
groans of the other men.

Ranalla gave Langly a dirty look at how he said her beloved
grandfatherís name but nodded biting her tongue as she thought trying to keep her
temper under wraps, ĎI need their help. I need their help. I will not yellÖI
will control myself.í

Byers sighed at his tactless friend and was going to say something when
Ranallaís stomach growled loudly. Looking at the men she blushed beat
red.

"Iím sorry." he said with the grace of a knight of old, "Please come
in. Here we have some pizza if you would like it."

Ranalla for the next few minutes found her self pushed to a small
kitchen table. Pushed on a chair that just seconds ago held what seemed a ton
of newspapers. She listened as Frohike searched for a clean plate. And
yelling at Byers at Langly for not washing dishes more than once a
week. The blond man, she figured out was Langly almost poured soda on her as
he pushed a can in her face. Ranalla sighed and though again what has she
gotten herself into.

When the cold greasy pizza was pushed in front of her she was thankful
for it. It was something to look at than their faces and eyes.

Byers noticing that she was blushing all the more, coughed as he said,
"Your grandfather sent us an email last night. Telling us that you would be
coming. And you had something for us."

Langly snapped as he tried to get his feelings under control said, "Hey
how do we know she is who she said she is?"

Ranalla snapped at the tall blond man, whose eyes seem to hold wave
caught in their glaze, "Here!" she said as she dug in her backpack for her
license and threw it at him with a pout on her pink lips.

All three men looked at the license, each seeing something that other
did not in the woman before them.

Frohikeís eyes where drawn to her age and figure. Even under that
baggy t-shirt he knew she was lovely. And at 26 she was not to young for an
old man like him. She may like older men he decided. And she is just the
height, the same height as he was, nothing against tall women he
thought.

Byers saw that the red head woman in front of him was like his lost
love - Susanne Modeski. She had that same innocent quality about her. One
that made him want to protect her. To make everything right for her.

Langly saw those ocean blue eyes of hers. Ones that seem to look into
his lonely soul, that knew what he was feeling. More than once in the half
hour she has been here he wanted to pull her close and just hold her.

But all agreed that she was pure trouble, in their minds, trouble that
they would not mind having around.

Ranalla had her arms crossed under her breasts as she pouted and asked,
"Well do I pass? May I have my license back?" she demanded.

All three men looked up at the sound of her voice and each seem to
blush when they noticed they where staring at her again.

Langly pushed over her license to her and the second their fingers
touched there seem to be something in the air. Making him look up at her and
stare at her open mouthed again.

Ranalla had enough of this and blushing she almost shouted at the three
men, "What is there something in my hair I donít know about? Did I grow an
extra eye or something? STOP STARING AT ME! This was an mistake!"

She sighed and her hands shook as she pushed herself from the table.
With a sob she grabbed her backpack from the floor and started to walk to the
door. Her shoulders shaking from unshed tears that where starting to fall.
The horrors of the pass seven hours seem to have caught up to her all at
once. And she did not for the life of her want these men to see her cry.

Byers was the first up, giving Langly another hard look. He was
quickly at her side and touched her shaking shoulder, "Ranalla." he said in that
gentle voice of his, "Iím sorry we did not mean anything by it."

Frohike was in front of her, wondering how he was going to stop the
woman from walking out of their lives as quickly as she walked in to it.
Even Langly, who knocked over the table in his hurry to stop her from
leaving, grabbed her arm and offered an apology.

Ranalla turned and looked at the men her tears falling fast and hot
now. Her whole body shook from them and when Byers pulled her to his chest
she cried her heart out as she held on to him as if he was her only
lifeline.

Frohike and Langly looked to each other, crying women was not something
they knew about. And the sound of her heart breaking sobs seem to go right
threw them. Each man touched her shaking shoulders to offer comfort as she
held on to Byers. Both men wanted to be where Byers was, but knew deep in
their hearts he was the best man for this.

Safe in Byersí arms Ranalla told them everything that has happen in the
last few days. How her grandfather has been acting stranger and stranger
the pass months. Strange men coming to the office they worked out of.
Yelling at her grandfather. How he talked her into breaking into the office
last night. The fall from the window. The strange man in black at the bus
stop watching her like a shark.

With a yawn she looks at each of them. Her blue green eyes red from
crying. Reaching into her jacket pocket she hands the CD she burned to Frohike,
"Grandfather wanted you to have this." she said in a shaky voice.
Looking at Byersí suit Ranalla turned red again, "Iím sorry. Your suit."

Byers laughed soft and Langly laughed out right as he said in a husky
voice, "He has tons of suits. And I mean tons. You...you look like your going
to fall asleep on your feet. Do...do you want to lay down? You...you can
have my bed."

Ranalla looked at him, falling into his blue eyes again. Time seem to
stop for her for that second and quickly she looked down at her shaking
hands, "I donít want to put anyone out."

Frohike laughed, "Heck that is more action Blondieís bed has seen if
you grace it by sleeping on it. But his is the newest bed."

Langly blushed then and with that boyish smirk of his he looked at
Ranalla, "He is right. About my bed being new. Besides you look you look like
you're going to faint. Come on."

Byers stood up and helped her to her shaking feet. Ranalla held on to
Byersí hand in a death like grip, it was as if he was her lifeline. For some
reason she felt like she was drowning around this three men. And the
comfort that Byers seem to have around him flowed from him and to calm
her tired mind.

Following Langly to his bedroom she looked around with wide eyes,
"Clean much?" she questioned with a hint of laugher in her voice.

Langly laughed, "Na itís the maid's day off."

Ranalla smiled weakly and took the blanket that Frohike pushed in her
arms.

"Thank you all. I...Iím sorry for putting you threw this," she said
softly as she sat down on the bed.

Frohike laughed and patted her hand, "Donít worry about it..."

Byers said, "...We do this all the time..."

With Langly finishing the line, "Just not to beautiful women..."

The others looked at him, with Langly blushing red and walking quickly
out taking the CD from Frohikeís hand. Byers nodded to Frohike and they
too left. Ranalla smiled and lay on the bed, feeling each man somehow near
her. It was as if they where holding her even now as she turned to get
combatable on the narrow bed.

"Iím safe Grandfather. I feel so safe...," she whispered into the
darkness as her eyes closed, "Safe..."